


Can You Keep a Secret

by wordsbykaly



Category: Descendants (Disney Movies)
Genre: Angst, Bevie, F/M, Fluff, Love Confessions, Not Canon Compliant, Secrets, Trapped
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-24
Updated: 2019-08-24
Packaged: 2020-09-24 02:49:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20351137
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wordsbykaly/pseuds/wordsbykaly
Summary: Evie has her secrets and Ben has his. But it's only a matter of time before the truth gets out; better to hear it from each other than from anyone else.





	Can You Keep a Secret

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! I've been itching to write a fic of one of my favorite ships in Descendants: Ben x Evie. But I was having a hard time making the plot until I watched this trailer for a romcom called "Can You Keep a Secret". This story is nothing like that movie (I think) but the movie inspired the title and everything just flowed from there. 
> 
> Hope you guys like this!

She wasn’t sure what to expect. When Cinderella’s son had asked her to help him with his homework – for real, this time – she was sure that tutoring him was the _last_ thing she wanted to do on a Saturday night. He also _very conveniently forgot_ that he commissioned another elaborate cape from her fashion line and needed to pick it up by Monday. She was far from finished, to say the least.

Still… he’d promised her a backstage pass to the next Auradon Fall Walk, which was _the_ fashion show of the year. Ever since coming to the mainland, she’d dreamed of getting a chance to learn from designers and to see how it was like in the industry. Tickets were pretty much impossible to get unless you knew someone… but here’s Chad who practically dangled the golden ticket in her face.

How could she have said no?

But that was until he locked her in a classroom in the middle of the night. Oh, he was really going to get it this time!

Evie had her hands on the door, feeling for any weaknesses – hollow spots, cracks, loose screws – but there weren’t any. She listened for footsteps or voices or any sign that someone was close. If they couldn’t break her out themselves, then they could maybe find someone with a key. Better yet, an ax for when she’d need to hunt Chad Charming down herself. Yet the hall behind the door stayed silent, save for the rustling of the chandeliers as the wind blew through.

So much for her Saturday night.

She drew in a calming breath, casting a look around her. At least Chad picked a nice room. It wasn’t like the bigger classrooms they used for Advanced Royal History or Economics of a Monarchy. They’d have Drama class here and she loved everything about it – from the way light spilled through its tall windows, how her heels clicked as she walked across the low stage, and the closets spilling with costumes and props and accessories. In one breath, she could be anyone she wanted to be: princess, artist, mother, sorceress… She could almost ignore the dirty looks that stuck to her skin and the whispers that still trailed after her.

Liking the room didn’t make things any easier. There was still no way out and she didn’t like being alone, not with the moon staring down at her from its perch. It reminded her too much of her exile when she would spend the nights looking up at the stars, talking to the moon as if it could make everything better again. But the pale face had only looked on in mocking silence, a witness to as many a tragedy as the world is old. Right now, she would settle with anyone, even Chad or her ex-boyfriend, Doug, if it meant she wouldn’t have to look up and be alone again.

But then the door opened, and in tumbled someone she was not so happy to see.

* * *

He fought to keep his eyes open but he wasn’t even sure what for. It was late for these kinds of things but Chad said someone needed to speak with him. Something about dorm room security issues? Ben wasn’t really sure what he could do about it; he wasn’t Fairy Godmother to meddle with the matters at school. But if Ben anticipated anything, it wasn’t to see her, all words of protest dying on his tongue when their eyes met.

He could never get over how beautiful she was. Her blue curls framed her heart-shaped face and spilled over her shoulders in a sapphire waterfall. She glowed with the light of the moon, her eyes catching the moonlight and looking more tawny than brown. Evie wasn’t a spell caster like Mal but he knew she could bewitch him if she wanted to, even with a single look. Her face was a familiar mask it wore since he and Mal had broken up. But just before it slipped on, he was sure he saw that she was just as surprised as he was.

The click of the classroom door stabbed through the silence, enough to jar her out of her surprise and get her running to the door before the outer lock was turned. But she was too late and they listened to Chad’s footsteps as he walked away, whistling the tune his uncle dwarves had taught him.

Other people would’ve been thrilled at being locked in a room with the fairest girl of them all. But he was finding that a little difficult when she stared daggers at him, her warm eyes impossibly glacial.

He stepped toward her. “Evie, I–"

“Save it, Your Highness.” She turned away from him then and stalked back to the window. As she sat before it, facing the sky above them, it almost felt as if she was the moon itself: beautiful but miles and miles away. 

* * *

What was Chad getting at, locking the two of them in here? Anyone with a pair of eyes and good sense would know better than to stick the two of them together.

Then again, this was _Chad_ she was talking about. His mother might have had good sense in spades but she definitely passed a teaspoon to her kid when it was time for him to get his fill.

Ignoring the King of Auradon wasn’t that sensible a move either but she couldn’t look at him without thinking of Mal. She only ever cried about the breakup when she ended things, her hands trembling and silent tears sprinting down her face as she flew into their dorm room. Evie could never forget the wild, hurt look in her eyes before she dove into Evie’s arms for who knows how long. After that she was never quite the same, never really meeting anyone’s eyes and always skirting around the crowd – even Evie.

If Mal knew Evie’s secret… Evie didn’t want to see how much it could destroy her. So she did what she had to do. Evie pushed down the secrets meant for no one but herself because it was the only way to protect her best friend. Because that’s what they did, didn’t they? Protect each other, even if it meant that someone was going to get hurt.

If the moon was a goddess, Evie could just imagine the wicked laugh spilling over her pale lips, a cruel gleam to her silver eyes. _You didn’t want to be alone, remember? Well, now you’re not!_

The moon? Ugh, definitely a little bitch.

This whole situation was throwing off her plan of protecting Mal seriously out of whack. She felt his eyes on her; what was he thinking? What was he doing here? And why wasn’t he saying anything?

She was _not_ going to talk to him, that’s for sure. No matter how loud the silence screamed in her ears. 

* * *

“What are you doing here, Ben?” She said it so softly, he almost wouldn’t have caught it. She kept her back to him but he could see how tense her shoulders were, how uncomposed she was, which was pretty rare for Evie.

He wanted to reach out but he knew better than to draw close. So he kept his back to the classroom door, letting himself get comfortable on the cool tile floor. “Chad told me someone needed to talk to me.” And before she could say anything, he quickly added, “I swear, I wouldn’t have come if I’d known it was you!”

Was it just him or did her shoulders sag just a little bit? “Right. Of course.” The sharpness of her voice cut him and he didn’t understand why they had to be like this, why she was acting so hard and distant.

“And you? Didn’t figure you the type to hang out in abandoned classrooms in the middle of the night.”

“Well, a certain Prince Charming decided it would be good fun to lock me in here so it’s not like I had a choice.”

Chad? Not that he was surprised; his friend stuck him in here, too. But why? And why with Evie of all people?

Things with Evie (and basically all of the VKs) went sour when he and Mal broke up. Mal had been the one who asked for it, and while he begged her to tell him why she was doing this, especially after what they’ve been through, she shot him a look full of hurt and mistrust.

“Ben, I can never be with someone who’s in love with someone else!”

The moment Mal walked out of his office was the moment everything changed. He hardly ever saw her even when they had classes together. Maybe it was some kind of spell she put up around her, but he only saw flashes of purple or green if he didn’t look too close, or the echo of her laugh if he didn’t strain his ears to listen. He still saw the guys during tourney and, though they’d act cool about the whole thing, neither said anything about Mal. Which had left him with the only person who might have had the answers: Evie.

He had always been good friends with Evie, and not just because she was Mal’s best friend. On some days he would find her in the library and they would read books together, lost in the world trapped between each page. She listened whenever he found an interesting passage in his book and they could spend hours dissecting it and what it meant, pulling threads from the tapestries of their own lives and weaving it into meaningful dialog. She always knew exactly what to say whenever his duties as King became too much, whenever people fought and wouldn’t listen to him. Evie was there with a smile on her face and a ready answer in hand.

But eventually, even she started fading from sight. When they did see each other, the princess never got too close to him. She was never within six feet of him, and never with the smile that lit up her face like a billboard.

Everything just felt all wrong. Now, trapped as they were, she wouldn’t even speak to him, wouldn’t even turn around to look at him and think of a way out together.

The sound of a solid object slipping to the floor shook him out of his reverie. It was a small bit of a thing he couldn’t make out at this distance, landing a few inches from where Evie sat. It landed close enough to her for him to wonder if it slipped from her fingers. He didn’t dare hope that it was what he thought it was. He waited for Evie to pick it up but she didn’t. Ben noticed the steady rise and fall of her shoulders, a suspicion growing in his mind. When she still didn’t move, he slowly made his way toward her, careful not to make any loud sounds. He got to the edge of the window and couldn't help but smile as his suspicions were confirmed.

Evie fell asleep. Typical.

And lying on the floor and glinting in the moonlight was a ring. _His _ring.

**Author's Note:**

> Follow me on my tumblr and we can congregate together as fans! I'm eviletteoftheisle@tumblr.com. See you around! :)


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